Mixed
Focusing on overall diet patterns (e.g., Mediterranean or DASH) significantly reduces cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk, whereas focusing on isolated nutrient targets (e.g., low-fat or low-saturated fat) produces no significant clinical benefits.
Stop counting calories or obsessing over fat grams. Instead, build your meals around whole, minimally processed foods: vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains, and fish. Limit processed meats, refined grains, and added sugars. This pattern, like the Mediterranean or DASH diet, is proven to prevent heart disease and diabetes better than any single-nutrient restriction.
Randomized clinical trials... confirm the benefits of healthful, food-based diet patterns... such diets significantly reduce both cardiovascular events and diabetes mellitus. In comparison, both observational cohorts and randomized trials confirm little clinical benefit of diets focused on isolated nutrient targets, such as low-fat, low-saturated fat diets, which produce no significant benefits on cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, or insulin resistance.
Why this rating
Supported by large, long-duration randomized controlled trials (PREDIMED, WHI) and prospective cohorts.
Source
Dietary and Policy Priorities for Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Obesity
Dariush Mozaffarian · Circulation · 2016
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